Illumorga
by Eu Tyto Alba
Summary: Backstory for my first D&D character, Sabrina Illumorga, a Drow child on a Cryptozoological quest to find the 'mythical' Anulo Ra'a. Most dungeon masters say they don't exist, but this little Drow knows better. Someday, their paths WILL cross... ...again.


Sabrina Illumorga was the daughter of two average Drow warriors, both born and raised in the cavernous, subterranean cities of The Underdark. While still a young child, her parents were summoned to serve in the Spider Queen's military when She invaded the Surface World. Sabrina was left with her decrepit aunt, who, jealous of Sabrina's health, strength, and unsullied youth, sold her to a brothel out of spite.

The Drow are wholly incompassionate and self-serving as a society, so this was common practice. Especially if one wished to strike a blow to a rival family vying for power, one targeted their young; and, oftentimes, the family left it to their young to defend themselves in order to prove their superior strength and worthiness. So, Sabrina's parents were just expected understand; it profited her aunt nothing to keep her, and so her aunt would be seen as only having done what was right in her eyes. Furthermore, since Drow society is so extremely matriarchal that its own men are regarded as a lesser subspecies, Drow men seeking their own sense of empowerment, refuge from the domineering abuse of their mates, find it in preying on the only Drow females weaker than themselves... And in Drow culture, where there is a demand, there is always, always a market...

Fortunately, however, Sabrina naturally excelled in cunning and resourceful self-defense, and proved herself stronger than those that threatened her. This pissed the brother off, of course, because those four regular and wealthy patrons whom Sabrina was offered to wouldn't _ever_ be soliciting whores again... And so, to be rid of Sabrina in the quickest and cruelest way they had handy, the brothel sold her in turn to a band of foreign assassins that only wanted her for live target-practice.

The assassins took Sabrina above-ground, far from The Underdark, and set her loose in an ancient forest where they intended to hunt her down. The assassins knew that Sabrina's small size, agility, and Darkvision gave her several natural advantages over them, and hoped that those would make her, as prey, the rare challenge that the assassins craved. It went without saying that, were Sabrina to successfully evade them, she would finally win her freedom.

After being given a head-start into the woods, and a harrowing chase thereafter, the next thing that Sabrina knew, the assassins were falling from the sky one by one. All she could see was, here and there, a flash of enormous white wings catching the thin rays of moonlight. Being accustomed to subterranean darkness, these flashes blinded Sabrina and further obscured the powerful creature responsible. When the last of the assassins had had his neck broken and the creature alighted in a mossy clearing, this giant bird revealed itself to be another Drow! Except winged, and the most beautiful warrioress that Sabrina had ever seen! So deadly that she was untouchable—was she a ghost?! Sabrina recoiled into a hollow tree root, fearing that she might be next to fall under that lighting blade, yet lingered out of transfixed curiosity instead of outright fleeing.

Of course, as a Drow, albeit a strange one, this woman had Darkvision as well, and sighted Sabrina immediately. She approached the terrified child, and tried coaxing her out of her hiding place with a sweet smile. "Are you hurt? I will help you."

Sabrina had never seen a smile that wasn't twisted by hunger before. She didn't know what to make of it, but did as she was told by this obvious superior. "What...what _are_ you?" Sabrina asked shyly, expecting a reprimand for speaking out of turn, and plotting her escape-rout through the forest should one become necessary.

"I am Drow, like you," the winged warrior said.

' _Not_ like me,' Sabrina echoed in her mind, facially expressing her confusion.

"My name is Mirrai Vælora." The woman squatted down to smile up at Sabrina, and reached out to stroke the child's silky, silver hair. But, Sabrina snapped at the woman's fingers with her sharp teeth, and sprang up into the tree she had been hiding under. She hissed a warning at her defender that sounded a man-sized cockroach. The little girl hadn't made it this far in life by being trusting.

"The sun will be up soon, you had better stay in the forest until nightfall. There are plenty of mushrooms in here, but only eat what you can recognize from The Underdark. You'll be alright. You're free now, but if I were you, I'd never go back there," was the warrioress's parting words. As she lifted her soft, snowy wings, a storm of large, malted feathers swept across the forest floor mixing with a flurry of decayed leaves. Sabrina's breath caught in her chest at the surreal sight.

Once the woman had flown far enough to not be able to detect Sabrina, Sabrina ran after her on foot all the way to the edge of the forest, which ended abruptly as a cliff-side. Below the cliff sprawled an unknown settlement. The airborne Drow glided past it with the slow grace of a lonely, self-assured cloud, and disappeared into the inscrutable beyond.

Sabrina had never seen the horizon before—or the sky. Why was it changing colors now? Where did the glow-worms on this great cavern ceiling go?! And then _'the great yellow eye'_ looked over the horizon, and Sabrina no longer cared about anything else. Upon first contact with daylight, her skin rankled, and she fled back into the heart of the shadowy forest.

While resting against an old, damp stump, several of the winged Drow's malted feathers tumbled past Sabrina on the breeze. The impressed little girl decided to keep them, and tied them into her with the idea that, in the future, they would enable her to channel that woman's unbounded strength. It was like the strength of a vengeful ghost.

Even if Sabrina had wanted to return to The Underdark, she didn't know the way.

Later on, when she awoke from her Elven trance at nightfall and had scavenged breakfast, (including a dozen or more live centipedes which Sabrina found tasted delightful compared to the bland, albino bugs back home), she set off scaling the cliff to see whatever there was to see in that small, wooden town. The night winds were freezing alongside the precipice, laden with the town's scent of chimney smoke, and Sabrina couldn't help but envy the careless ease with which that bird-woman had transcended it. "A pair of wings would be _wonderful_ right about now," Sabrina complained aloud as her tiny foot slipped from a rock outcropping and dangled over open space.

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* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** LOL cliffhanger ending. xD_

 _After learning more about the official D &D races, I also created an Aasimar Ranger who's Angel Wings get Sabrina's attention as her first potential lead on the Anulo Ra'a. As they adventure together, he becomes a father-figure to her, and the two form an adorable, unlikely due. You and I both will just have to wait and see how much D&D stuff I'm willing to write; I've already had to blow-off LOTS of WAY more important projects just to research & write this much! D:  
_


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